Imran showers praise on KP Police, Rana critical

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Wednesday lauded “professional” Khyber Pakhtunkwa police for arresting the suspected killer of little Asma in Mardan.
Soon after a press conference by the IG KP police today, where he announced the arrest of the suspect, the PTI chief took to Twitter to heap praise on the police, which has been under fire ever since the Asma murder-sexual assault case came to the light.
He said: “Commendable work by the professional KP police force. In the Asma case, with just one spot of blood found & no other evidence, no CCTV footage, KP police worked professionally to catch culprit showing they have developed advanced forensic detection capability as well.”
Hitting out at Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had taken it upon himself to announce the arrest of a suspect in a high-profile Zainab rape-murder case in Punjab, he said “Nor was there any political gloating by CM [KP CM Pervez Khattak].””Instead, as is done all over the democratic world, the police chief gave a professional press briefing. This is the difference between KP’s professional police force & the highly politicised & criminalised police force of Punjab & Sindh.” The arrest came on the heels of the Supreme Court taking the KP police to task over failure to tackle the cases of sexual assault and murder which surfaced lately.
Punjab law minister has criticised Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police on Wednesday by saying that perpetrator in minor Asma’s murder case belonged to victim’s neighbourhood household and could not be traced for a long time.
While talking to the media, Sanaullah said that the case was solved with help of Punjab government after DNA tests were carried out in Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA).
He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan should thank Punjab chief minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif and PFSA Director General (DG).
While talking about Nizamuddin Sialvi’s statement, he said that the cleric has rightly stated that he along with his supporters were attempted to be misused in hands of ‘secret forces’.
The law minister further said that leaders of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have been claiming for a long time that ‘secret hands’ are attempting to destabilise the system.
Statement of the law minister over late Asma has come in after her rapist and murderer was caught today, over two weeks after her body was recovered in the fields.
Sanaullah had said on Tuesday that Asma had gone missing on January 14 in Mardan’s Gujar Garhi area, and her dead body was found from sugarcane fields near her home on January 15 after rape.
DNA samples – including blood and hair – of 145 locals within 2-3 kilometers radius of incident were taken for cross-matching by KP Police.-NNI